Top adviser: Paul needs top three in Iowa, N.H.

Ron Paul campaign chairman Jesse Benton said Wednesday that his candidate must finish in the top three in Iowa and New Hampshire in order to win the Republican presidential nomination.

Benton said that Paul is already looking down the primary calendar to organize heavily in caucus states. In those contests, Paul’s grassroots following could have an outsized impact.

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But it’s first things first for the Texas congressman, and Benton said that means performing near the top in the two leadoff states.

“We need to do well in Iowa and New Hampshire, because it’s very important for perception,” Benton told POLITICO after the Michigan GOP debate. “It’s also important because the voters in those states are very adept and astute at evaluating candidates, so we need to be in the top three in those states, no question about it.”

He continued: “But we’re setting up organizations in caucus states across the country and we have a real plan to win the delegates necessary to be the Republican nominee. I don’t think anyone, outside of perhaps Mitt Romney, can say that.”

Benton said that Paul’s fundraising continues to be solid, which sets him apart from much of the rest of the Republican field. Indeed, of all the would-be Romney opponents out there, Paul may be the only one now with a base of activists and donors who can be counted on not to desert him.

That base has been limited so far, but Benton said that as the field of candidates thins out, he expects voters will end up focusing on a choice between Paul – the most consistent foe of government spending and federal power in the GOP field – and Romney. And Perry’s implosion could help, he said, pointing out that “we fish from the same pot as Perry sometimes.”